I lost another duck today. I notice one Ancona was missing. I smelled something skunky in the tall weeds by the pond. I believe a fox got a duck that was hanging out on the dam that looks out to a field. It happened between 1-4 pm. I was outside a lot today. Dogs were out quite a bit too. My dad mowed all the tall grass, so we can see better and get rid of a hiding place for a predator. I’m starting to hear a lot more fox sounds. Weird thing is that there are no feathers indicating a struggle or trail. I couldn’t figure out where (the path) it took the duck after it grabbed it. The ducks are molting and loosing feathers very easily. There’s some disagreement about free ranging the ducks or keeping them in the pen. I’m stumped about wether I should allow them to swim in the pond anymore, and if I do, how to make it safer. I might need to put anti digging mechanisms around coops. I’ve been thinking about an electric netting around the coop. All the coops are designed to drag across the ground to give the birds new parasite free grass and natural forage. For now, I’m keeping them in their pen. I’m also going to put our Rooster, Tippy, back in with them. He lived with them over the winter. I saw him chase off a hawk once. He doesn’t have anywhere else important to be. I’m hoping foxes don’t try to go after the goats.
I just made the purchase from McMurray. I bought 3 unsexed Blue Swedish ducks and one female sexed Blue Swedish duck. I bought the one and only Saxony male available. Unfortunately no females were available. There’s someone with a Craigslist ad selling unsexed Saxony ducks about 2 hours away but the listing is 20 days old. So, I’m just going to cross my fingers the “drake” from Mcmurray is really a drake. The drake from Meyer was not. I also purchased one male sexed Welsh Harlequin to hatch a few ducklings to replace the girl I lost (hopefully I don’t lose any more). So far, my favorite of the 5 duck breeds I have is the Saxony duck breed. I really like their colors and temperament.
